What I found in Srila Prabhupada’s rooms at Radha-Damodar Temple

Last month I was in Vrindaban and visited Srila Prabhupada’s rooms at Radha-Damodara temple. This time, there was a piece of paper lying on the table in front of Srila Prabhupada’s murti. I bent down to read it. It looked like a facsimile of a letter from Srila Prabhupada. All the more so, because of a pen placed in Srila Prabhupada’s hand. This is the content of the “letter”:

“Those who stay there [at the Radha-Damodara Temple] will realize that those acaryas [Sri Rupa, Sri Jiva, Sri Kaviraja Goswami and Sri Bhugarbha Goswami] are still living there. And if one is actually advancing in the spiritual field, they can still take instruction from the acaryas living there. It is up to the individual, how he realizes this by his devotional service. By staying there you must realize how pure the environment is. The environment itself gives a high taste of consciousness. Radha-Damodara is there and the great acaryas samadhis are there. There cannot be any other better place to live than Radha-Damodara… This corner at the Radha-Damodara Temple is just like the hub of the wheel of the spiritual world — it is the center.’

“I eternally reside in my rooms at the Radha-Damodara Temple.”

Signed,
A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami

The fact that the “letter” was undated and not addressed to anyone made me question its legitimacy. Even supposing that it was only an excerpt from a letter to a disciple, at the very least there should have been a reference to the original.

I wondered who was responsible for placing the “letter” in that very spot. The content alludes to the possibility of taking instruction from those acaryas who have long ago left their material bodies as well as from Srila Prabhupada. This could be construed as evidence in support of taking Srila Prabhupada to be one’s guru without any formal initiation, even of the ritvik variety.

And so when I returned to Malaysia, I looked it up in the VedaBase. A simple search for the string “they can still take instruction from the acaryas living there” returned exactly one hit:

22. Biographies and Glorification of Srila Prabhupada\Prabhupada at Radha-Damodara – Mahanidi Swami (New-2003)\PRD 11:”My Eternal Residence”…advancing in the spiritual field, they can still take instruction from the acaryas living there. It is up to the…

Double-clicking on the link took me to the following:

What are the benefits of living and serving in Srila Prabhupada’s bhajan kutir? Ksirodakasayi, who lived there for nine months in 1972, answers.

Ksirodakasayi: “Those who stay there will realize that those acaryas are still living there. And if one is actually advancing in the spiritual field, they can still take instruction from the acaryas living there. It is up to the individual, how he realizes this by his devotional service. By staying there you must realize how pure the environment is. The environment itself gives a high taste of consciousness. Radha-Damodara is there and the great acaryas samadhis are there. There cannot be any other better place to live, than at Radha-Damodara!”

These are the words of Ksirodakasayi das, not Srila Prabhupada!

For the reference to Srila Prabhupada’s rooms being “just like the hub of the wheel of the spiritual world”, again Mahanidi’s book turns up among the search results. Mahanidi concludes the 11th chapter thusly:

Although Prabhupada never stayed again in his rooms at Radha-Damodara after 1972, he did say at that time:

Srila Prabhupada: “This corner at the Radha-Damodara temple is just like the hub of the wheel of the spiritual world – it is the center.”

Even though this statement doesn’t turn up amongst the conversations recorded in 1972, Hayagriva memorialized it in his book Vrindaban Days, Chapter 5: Srila Prabhupada at Radha Damodar:

“I’m simply Vrindaban’s messenger,” he says humbly, his demeanor suddenly very serious and reflective. “Vrindaban is revealed in the heart of the sincere devotee. In reality, it is not on any map, nor is it part of any country. It was in Vrindaban that I first began writing, not for name and fame, but because my Guru Maharaj told me, ‘Spread the gospel of Krishna in the English language.’ Although he gave that instruction in 1935, I hesitated, not knowing how to go about it or how to write. Then, twenty years later, my Guru Maharaj began appearing in my dreams, telling me to give up householder life and go to Vrindaban. After several of these dreams, I knew that the time had come. My children were grown, and I could leave my wife in their care. So, I came here, and eventually, by Krishna’s arrangement, stayed at this most sanctified place, Radha Damodar. It was here that I began writing. I thought, ‘It may be published, or it may not be published—that does not matter. I will write for purification, that’s all.’

“Actually, it was my Guru Maharaj speaking through me. But I was not very expert at writing, as he was. Oh, he was a most erudite man, most refined and expert, a gentleman, a Vaikuntha man. Because I had never written before, there were so many grammatical discrepancies, yet I had to write. The subject matter was so important, so urgent. So I wrote those first three volumes of Srimad Bhagavatam, the First Canto. All of our philosophy, everything you need to know, is in those first three volumes. By Krishna’s grace, I managed to collect money to get them printed, and I took them with me on the boat to New York I didn’t go to America empty-handed. I went with the complete philosophy of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, written in these rooms, inspired by the Goswamis. Thats what is pushing this Krishna consciousness movement. If I have been successful, it’s because I have delivered my Guru Maharaj’s message intact, without change or deletion. That is parampara. The bona fide guru is like the postman delivering a message. He doesn’t open the mail and write his own opinion. You may like the message or not, take it up or not—I have done my duty. I have delivered it. And it all began here. Therefore these Radha Damodar rooms are the hub of the wheel of the spiritual universe.”

As for the final sentence, “I eternally reside in my rooms at the Radha-Damodara Temple”, it doesn’t turn up anywhere in the VedaBase. Satsvarupa Gosvami did record in Srila Prabhupada Lilamrita (Vol 5) that Srila Prabhuapda had said that he lived eternally in his rooms at Radha-Damodara Temple, but Srila Prabhupada does not mention it in any book, lecture, conversation or letter. Of course we know that not every single thing Srila Prabhupada said was recorded on tape, and he very well might have said it, but authentic or not, the words have been tagged onto the end of this hodgepodge piece of work, and finally, the words “Signed, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami” complete the illusion that this is a letter from Srila Prabhupada.

I personally find it outrageous that anyone would dare to leave such a fabrication on the table in front of Srila Prabhupada.

I noticed that none of Srila Prabhupada’s original books are in his rooms at Radha-Damodara Temple — not a single one! — and over at Krishna-Balarama Mandira the changed books occupy pride of place on the shelves in Srila Prabhupada’s room. There are no original books other than the first three volumes he published before coming to USA. It was here that Srila Prabhupada dictated the Tenth Canto Part Three of Srimad-Bhagavatam up to Chapter 13, Text 64 (he passed before the work was completed), yet there is not a copy of this volume in the room! All the other books on display are the changed books and translations of the changed books. In light of this travesty, the fake letter on the table in Srila Prabhupada’s room at Radha-Damodar Temple doesn’t seem so out of place.

It all makes sense, in a perverse kind of way. Jayadvaita and his team of editors have taken licence with Srila Prabhupada’s books to the extent that reading the revised editions, one cannot be sure what Srila Prabhupada really did write after all. The changes have been documented, and it is clear that the so-called corrections go way beyond fixing typos and grammatical errors. Purports have been altered. Certainly Srila Prabhupada was poisoned – his vani has been poisoned. From 1980 onwards, no original books have been reprinted except for the books printed by Hansadutta. If not for his printing, and if not for the BBT court case, there would not have been any original books available to devotees. Additions and subtractions have been rendered seamlessly in the texts. Invisible, undetectable, like arsenic. Despite Srila Prabhupada’s own vehement objections and despite protests from several senior disciples, ISKCON leaders and rank-and-file devotees have given Jayadvaita a free hand to do any and all revisions, and so doing, they have ingested the insidious poison. Now the poison acts subtly. It does not kill immediately, but first induces a state of doubt in the potency and veracity of Srila Prabhupada’s words, and later, blind indifference. ISKCON devotees do not care for Srila Prabhupada’s original books. Rather, the opposite. ISKCONers treat the originals with disdain and prefer the changed books. Devotees are discouraged from reading or possessing the original books. We received a report from someone who was surprised that a visiting devotee invited to give class rejected an original Bhagavad-gita As It Is and demanded to read from the revised edition instead. From what we’ve heard since, this was not an isolated incident. ISKCON promotes and sells only the changed books, and even the Bhaktivedanta Archives has removed the original books from the VedaBase library of Srila Prabhupada’s works.

The business of the disciples is to preserve the integrity of the spiritual master’s teachings and put them into action, but ISKCON has failed spectacularly in this regard. Recall, too, how ISKCON GBC stooped to the level of formally declaring in reply to legal interrogatories that Srila Prabhupada’s books were “works for hire” created by employees of ISKCON. (They’ve never apologised or retracted the statement, by the way.) This blatant insult coupled with the changing of the books has had the effect of minimizing Srila Prabhupada’s place as the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON. The mentality of disrespect for the Founder-Acharya’s words has pervaded the Society, and over the last several years or so we’ve seen at least one guru openly questioning the relevance of Srila Prabhupada’s books in this day and age and calls from others for the BBT International, Inc. to edit out non-pc statements about women and homosexuals.

Devotees owe a debt of gratitude to Hansadutta for his determination to preserve and keep Srila Prabhupada’s books in print and distribution. Through the years, ISKCON made all kinds of propaganda to demonize him, and claimed he was out to destroy ISKCON and was against Srila Prabhupada! But thanks to Hansadutta, devotees can still get hold of original books. If not for his fierce defence of Srila Prabhupada’s BBT in the face of ISKCON and BBT International, Inc, today there would be no KBI printing the original books under license from BBT International, Inc. He was the only one who could save the original books, because he was the last remaining BBT trustee. Certainly Srila Prabhupada did not make a mistake in appointing him as BBT trustee for life.

I don’t hold out hope that ISKCON leaders will come to their senses and remedy the situation. But I do wish now that I could give the knucklehead who typed that scrap of paper lying in front of Srila Prabhupada a piece of my mind. What is wrong with quoting what Srila Prabhupada himself said and leave it at that! (As if Srila Prabhupada did not say enough.) Why put words spoken by another as if spoken by Srila Prabhupada? And by the way, I’d like to induce the caretaker to put the original books on display in Srila Prabhupada’s room at Radha-Damodar Temple. Can anyone please tell me who is in charge of Srila Prabhupada’s rooms in Radha-Damodara Temple? Please provide name and contact. Thank you.

5 thoughts on “What I found in Srila Prabhupada’s rooms at Radha-Damodar Temple”

I am surprised, given your level of concern, that you have not commented on the deplorable condition of Srila Prabhupada’s room at Radha Damodar. At least that scrap of paper you mention shows favorable intentions. Due to disputes or whatever between Radha Damodar administrators and ISKCON, SP’s rooms are in a pathetic condition. Please spend some time on this issue. Bring a broom and dustpan when you visit, bring a bucket and wash rag to cleans the floors. Bring some brasso to clean his plates and arati utensils. Bring some nice incense. Bring him some fruit or sweets. Please. Thank you very much.

Dear MLN, thank you for your comment. Thank you also for pointing out the sorry state of the rooms. This is the especial concern of the caretaker. Who is in charge? However favorable the intentions might have been of the person who typed up that bogus letter, it is nevertheless a fabrication, taking license to put words into Srila Prabhupada’s mouth that he never spoke. This kind of thing has come about as a result of the callous attitude of devotees towards Srila Prabhupada’s words. No broom, wash rag or brasso can cleanse this kind of stubborn dirt. What guarantee is there that the Radha Damodar Temple will be around a hundred years from now? What will be left of ISKCON temples? The temples that the six Goswamis established have been abandoned. The buildings will not remain. What is important is the vani. Srila Prabhupada himself said, “The temples and the devotees may fail, but my books will live forever.” When those books have been poisoned, what can brasso do? What are you willing to do about it?

Dearest Srila Prabhupada, It is with heavy heart to read about the deteriorating condition of Your residence at Sri Sri RadhaDamodhara.By Your mercy I stayed there for sometime in 1984-85 the service most relished, daily shopping in market the items in offerings to You the breakfast,mid-day,and evening hot milk, in Your very kitchen,the same place You cooked offerings Your Guru Maharaja Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati.The same Your dear Sister cooked offerings to You.To serve You there and watch You Honor Prasad while Your gaze through that small window upon the Samadhi of the Goswamis engraved the golden memory upon my heart the service washing Your pots,plates,utensils touched to Your lotus like mouth. Cleaning Your sleeping room,washing the floors,remaking Your bed where after tirelessly writing You rested and lay Your head.These memories forever with me as I remember how such blessed good fortune to sleep outside Your door ever vigilent Your calling,beckoning with Your Order my heart to serve Sri Sri RadhaDamodara.The success of which comes of serving You my Master the One to save a wretched soul my debt I shall never able to repay You,Your Divine Grace, my Spiritual Father Srila Prabhupada. All Glory to You and those before that tread barefoot in the dust of RadhaDomadara. ever your servant one thousand crore of lifetime -gopijana dasa-

I don’t know if you will read this, except from the tons of the drtharastra hacker who do. I will not read a reply because i not use my email accounts to read. I can tell you this, all of Prabhupada’s temples are gone. Krsna only descides who gets the mercy and who not. For deity worship doesn’t excist anymore in the temples, because they are to dirty. In the last 20 years i couldnot even go on book distribution because of the low status of the temples. I am eversince cleaning the temples like anything, realy centimeter by centimeter and it all turns out that there are no Prabhupadanuga’s left in our movement. Whenever i clean (up to 20 hours) frequently in a day the next day its all a mess again. There are even people who purpusly put foodstuffs in different places so that insect and animals like rats are wondering throughout the night spoiling so much of the cleanliness. Objects are treated without respect and doors are slammed (to the altar). Prabhupada’s lectures and bhajans are completly rejected.
When i play (during) cleaning a Prabhupada lecture or song it seems that everybody is fleeing the scene to return later with a kind of fake smile on their FACES. They are all day long watching their telephone screens even during japa. Nobody is reading Srila Prabhupada’s books serious or (as it use to be) jump up suddenly from their bed or place and screems ‘ jaya Prabhu, have you read this ‘ and a beautifull Prabhupada statement follows and the whole brahmacari ashrama screems Jaya Haribol, jaya Srila Prabhupada. To me it seems that Krsna strongly forbid these rascals to feel a nano- gram of love OR respect for His Divine Grace, because Krsna knows whats in their hearts. He just doesn’t allow them to understand for even a trillionth of a nano second who Srila Prabhupada is and who we are in his footsteps. Krsna completly lets them surrender fully to maya and her shakti’s, which are soooo powerfull. The most powerfull of all these shakti’s is actually not sex anymore, but pride, because with a sexual desire you can still have respect for the acarya, but pride takes that oppertunity complitly away. So perheps Krsna upgraded this power of pride in their hearts to such an extent, that it is overruling now sex desire within them.
Where they should have a heart beating, theve got a snake moving in that same place. A conditioned soul will understand ‘ oh, here is my guru, he came to tell me i am in maya and he can save me ‘ But they will or cannot have these feelings or definitiones, so they are not humanlike actually. But tw legged animals. They are the skin observers
and enjoy the breakdown of others. But breakdown caused by them doesn’t mean falling down from Krsna’s mercy. It means they are not Prabhupada temples, but something else

What a nonsense comment from MLN who by the way doesn’t include his name.
It was so disrespectful to address a senior devotee in such a way.
Anyway, I really appreciated the above letter and although I feel that certain corrections had to be made to Srila Prabhupada’s books they should only have been minor ones. Not corrections that completely change the style of Srila Prabhupada as a person, therefore changing the personality that we all love and cherish.
I have read all the excuses given as to why such an extensive rewrite had to take place, but I don’t buy it, not one little bit.
Intelligence does not a Krishna conscious person make.
Time does change things, but there are certain things that should never be changed and these books in question are one such item.
Your servant,
Haridasa Thakura Dasa.